and the continued after of courses of hurricane sandy, plus the dampened mood cast over the country by the recent school shootings in connecticut. >> what's on today's agenda for you to follow in the united states? there's no economic earnings starting to speak of on this christmas eve. the markets will be closing early with the nyse closing at 1:00 p.m. even, the cme at 1:15, nymex at 1:30 and the cme global index closes at 1:45 eastern so basically they can go shopping. now, u.s. markets were higher last week despite friday's lack of a deal on the fiscal cliff. the nax das was up by 1.7% and the s&p 500 by 1.2%. that may have been the santa claus rally. we're joined now by ben lichtenste lichtenstein. ben, if we look at futures this morning, looking negative. it doesn't look as though santa is going to visit on christmas eve. >> well, we have seen a significant santa rally. if you look at the lower levels we were trading at earlier. if you remember, we sold off with conviction to the downside in the s&p as we tested that 1340 level. recently, a strong rally off that level. but, reall